


Here With You

by illyriantremors



Category: A Court of Thorns and Roses Series - Sarah J. Maas
Genre: ACOWAR, Canon Divergence, Ginger son just needs some friends, friendship fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-28
Updated: 2017-07-28
Packaged: 2018-12-07 23:44:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,732
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11634423
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/illyriantremors/pseuds/illyriantremors
Summary: Just as the confrontation with Eris is reaching a climax in the Winter Court, Feyre discovers she has enough magic back to winnow her and Lucien to the safety of Velaris where her family waits. But before Feyre reunites with Rhys, she and Lucien share a moment together that could make or break the future of their friendship.





	Here With You

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is an alternative look at how Feyre and Lucien might have returned to the Night Court in ACOWAR rather than being flown in by Cassian and Az. I hope it adds an extra layer to their friendship that I know a lot of us feel was missing in ACOWAR.

All I could feel as my fist met flesh in the snow and I saw the white stained with a spray of brilliant red was the spark of power suddenly thrumming at my fingertips. I whirled to find Lucien staring at me not ten feet away and knew from the widening of his eyes that he felt it too.

_Magic_.

Before Cassian could protest, I was out of his grip and sprinting until I’d taken hold of Lucien’s worn down tunic and winnowed into the mist. The bright red-hot sun and scent of the sea greeted us as we crashed against the hard cement. Instantly, my back ached. But I felt like I could somehow breathe again.

But Lucien...

“Are you... are you okay?” I breathed, turning my neck just enough to get a look at him. His face was pinched beneath his hands blocking out the sun.

He drew panting breaths and the words came out short and clipped. A jolt of fear went through me, but I couldn’t see that he was visibly hurt. If he had been - if Eris had actually hurt him... “What... in the holy mother’s name... did you just do?” Lucien asked.

He rolled his head to the side and peered out at me from under his hand. I was suddenly aware of how close we were. How close we had been for months. And yet, this was the first time it didn’t feel like oceans separated us.

“Feyre?”

I opened my mouth to reply, but nothing came out. There was only that flash in my mind of what had happened and the panic that had risen with it: Cassian and Azriel defending against Lucien’s brothers and Eris pulling out ahead to go for Lucien. I’d bolted in front of him and made a hit right as Cassian pulled up. The blood had gone everywhere - and that _crunch_ of bone. I don’t know that I’d even registered the sound at the time, but now it made my mouth taste of ash.

“I think... I think I broke your brother’s nose?”

Lucien stared at me. And in that brief pause of silence, the wind picked up lifting his hair and bringing with it that scent of salt and sea I’d spent every waking moment since Hybern craving. And then, Lucien snorted and we fell into laughter against each other.

“Cauldron!” Lucien said between fits. “What I wouldn’t give to be in the manor when Eris turns up with his face blood-drenched and no bounty to show for it,” Lucien said. I hadn’t seen him smile so wide since I’d met him.

“Maybe we should put in an appearance sometime,” I replied. Lucien’s grip on me tightened and it made my stomach ache for that fear that must still be inside him that even the slightest humorous suggestion of going home would make him cringe. “Just for laughs, of course.”

“Of course.”

The moment fell silent again, but Lucien and I still clung to each other. I hadn’t realized just how much I’d missed him or how much he had perhaps missed _me_ until just then.

A shuffling of footsteps behind us and a discreet throat clear alerted me that we were no longer alone. But at Lucien’s next words, I held up a hand. If Rhys interrupted us now, I would run and never look back. And I owed Lucien more than that.

“Feyre, what is this place?”

Pulling back, and sitting upright despite the twinge it put into my back from the landing, I could see how pale Lucien’s skin had become, how sharp his eyes were looking past me towards the Sidra. I didn’t need to see it to know how brilliantly it sparkled in the afternoon sun, but I looked anyway. It was more beautiful than my dreams had remembered.

A smooth caress melted against my mental shields. My body threatened to turn against me, but I cracked my mind open just enough to get out - _five more minutes, just five more minutes, I beg you_ \- before zipping them back up. The caress faded at once.

“This is Velaris,” I said aloud to Lucien. To my surprise, he didn’t immediately scowl. “It’s my home now. And it can be your home too, if you... if you want it to.”

Lucien didn’t turn to me as he stared across the Sidra to where the Rainbow sat. I wanted to grab his hand and race him across the nearest bridge toward it and show him every ounce of life and art and happiness until he understood it was all his privilege too.

“And we are in the Night Court, I assume.”

“Yes.”

Lucien still didn’t turn, but his brow rose in interest. I held my head high. “What do ya think, hmm?”

A derisive chuckle. “You were always so glib, Feyre. In the beginning. When the world was still falling apart for everyone around you and you were yet to see.” He closed his eyes and tilted his head up, the sun brushing over his bronze skin. I couldn’t quite discern if it was true peace I saw there or only begrudging resolve for the box fate had shoved him in. “For you to be so again when I once thought you might die if only because you could not eat enough food to make it through a single night... this must truly be a place of peace.”

“It is,” I said, the words insistent. And I realized how badly I wanted Lucien to believe me. He was, after all, my first real friend here. Something between surprise and relief flickered on the other end of the bond and then promptly quieted. “It is a place of peace. It’s been that way for more than a millennia. I can’t explain it all in one day, and I don’t expect you to just stay here without considering all of your options. What you might need to do. But Lucien-” his eyes opened, adjusted at last to the light, and crinkled at the corners. “Lucien, if the day ever comes when you decide you _want_ to make this your home, it’s yours. You have my word.”

His mouth curved skeptically.

“And what about your ma-”

“You have my word.” Finally, Lucien looked at me. Heard the promise in my words. The swell in his eyes was more intense than I had anticipated, but it mirrored the ache left behind in that small, remaining hole inside my heart that was finally closing. “Besides, I’m High Lady now,” I continued, clearing my throat. “I can do whatever I want and if Rhys doesn’t like it, he can fuck himself. Cauldron knows he thinks he’s pretty enough.”

Now the tapping at my mental shields was returned in vigorous full force, and at the same time I distinctly heard Cassian snort in the distance behind us, _“You’re such a fucking loser, Rhys.”_

_“You prick-”_ and my heart leapt to hear Morrigan’s golden voice for the first time, replacing that shriek she’d left in my memory that had begged Rhys tell her what he’d done to me to get us all out of Hybern alive. _“Can’t you see they’re having a moment?”_

_“Yeah,”_ said a voice of shadows, _“a moment without Rhys.”_

_“Azriel!”_

The bond pulled taut with a dozen emotions all at once - frustration, longing, sorrow, relief... All of them and more, and they were all burning so intensely because I knew each one as well as I knew the tattoos adorning my skin. I’d felt them every second of every day since the moment Tamlin took me back to the Spring Court away from my mate. Away from Rhys.

Lucien dared the glance behind us I was yet unwilling to make and the laughter fell silent. He didn’t stare long. But I knew he understood the softness my heart was trying to push through my gaze. I didn’t need to break into his mind to tell him - nor would I ever:

_They can be your friends too_. _Whatever you decide._

Despite the obvious questions waiting behind us, Lucien and I sat on the banks of the Sidra for several more minutes simply staring, simply taking it all in. People passed us without much thought. It was the most calm I’d felt in quite a while. And when enough time had passed that Lucien abruptly stood and offered me his hands to help pull me up, I followed and he did not let go until I met his gaze and held it firm.

“Feyre.”

“Lucien?”

Something in his eyes - and maybe his heart - cracked. “Thank you.”

My arms were around his neck within an instant. “You don’t have to thank me for anything, but for what it’s worth - I’m glad you’re here.”

“I don’t know what I feel, but I am glad I am with you.”

I hummed contentedly against him, relief crashing through me for this man who had first given me a hand in this world of magic. My _friend_.

“Feyre?”

“Hmm?”

“Please go fuck your mate before he fucks me into the Cauldron for daring to breathe the same air as you.” I pulled away and was certain to have heard several other voices chiming in with smug fits of laughter. “Or is this the part where he fucks himself while you take the crown - I don’t remember.”

Lucien looked aside to where Rhys was standing with his arms crossed, more on edge to be so near me than at Lucien himself, I gathered. And unless I was rather mistaken, and I didn’t think I was, there was something of an old familiar glint in Lucien’s eye as he stared my mate down. “Always such a pleasure, little Lucien,” Rhys said, and my heart pounded at the sound.

I held Lucien’s hand aloft and tugged it in the direction of Mor and the boys before letting go. “He’s all yours. Now, if you’ll excuse me...” I looked to Rhys finally and saw the softening in his features just from that small, single connection between us. The corners of his lips twitched.

But when I ran into his arms and my lungs filled with that luxurious breath of jasmine and citrus and sea, his smile was wider than the sun. And it warmed my heart to know that standing somewhere next to me in my court, Lucien’s was too.

xx

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Feel free to leave feedback and come find me on Tumblr. :)


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